The Unexpected Exchange of Secrets

"You seem troubled, child"

"Do I?" she asked back.

On second thought, however, that was probably a silly question. She'd been walking in circles in her room for quite a while after all, and by that point that voice had been with her long enough to know that wasn't exactly part of her normal behaviour.

"Is something the matter? I can offer advice, if needed. I doubt there is much else I could provide for anyway"

"If I may be honest" she replied as she stopped, staring at the ceiling even though the voice wasn't really coming from there "I believe this is your fault"

She was pouting, a rather rare sight. And there was a very faint hint of anger in her voice too, something even rarer.

"I'm afraid you'll have to tell me what "this" is before expecting me to admit to any kind of guilt"

"About what... happened in the greenhouse" she said back, her cheeks growing flushed as the memories flashed back in her mind.

"Dear child, I am nothing more than a voice. How could I hold any responsibility for that?"

"B-but!" she nearly shouted, more flustered than angry "I'd n-never do something like that!"

"It pains me to inform you that you most definitively did, child"

"That's the problem! I would never t... t-touch someone like that! And w-while they're sleeping too! That's just... wrong!"

"What you're experiencing right now is guilt, child. Don't fret over it, it will go away on its own after a while"

"I'm not fretting!"

"Deep breaths, child. Restlessness is never of help"

It... was probably right on that, yes. Suzuran closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she'd been suggested. Then another three, for good measure, her tails going from waving franctically to lying calmly behind her.

"I might have offered my advices, yes, but I have no means to force you to accept them. You're the one who decided to act according to them"

And beyond them too, but the voice decided to not bring that up. It doubted it would remain with Suzuran for long, but it still wanted to stay on her good side anyway, or at least to not make her openly hostile, if only to not damage its relationship with Ifrit.

"That... can't be true. I'm... I'm not that kind of person"

"Bold words coming from someone who reads erotic novels every other night before going to sleep"

"I-i-it's just for research!" she shouted back, her newfound composure gone already as her little secret got so casually exposed "And it's just one book! One book!"

There wasn't anyone around to hear it, granted, but that made it only marginally less embarassing. If at all.

"I won't question you on this"

The voice considered making some sort of remark about how it was taking Suzuran weeks to finish said book -another piece of info it found out by digging around inside her head- but ultimately decided not to.

"... anyway. I've asked where Rosmontis' room is and when I might find her"

"I know you did. I was right there with you"

"... right. I'm sorry, I'm... not used yet to this situation. But what I wanted to say is that I'll go apologize to her tomorrow"

"... child. Little child dear. This is a terrible idea, I tell you"

"I have to"

"That feline doesn't even know what happened"

"That doesn't change the fact that I should at the very least apologize"

"... you're one stubbornly honest child, aren't you"

"Ehm... is that a compliment?"

"Merely a statement"

"Is that so... ehm... thanks, then. I think"

"You're welcome" it replied with a silent sigh.


The night came and went. The morning did the same, and so did the afternoon. By the time Suzuran managed to find a good chance to visit Rosmontis' room, the day was mostly gone already. She'd already had dinner too. Actually finding the room took a while too, if only because she wasn't all that familiar with the area of the landship it was located in.

But find it she did, and knock on it she did.

Not.

"Hesitating now, child?"

"... well... "

Suzuran looked around. Having confirmed that there was nobody to witness her talking to herself -albeith only apparently- she replied.

"Well... she is still my senior. And a superior officer too, right? She is an elite operator after all... maybe I shouldn't just knock on her door like this... ah, should I book an appointment?"

"Familiarity with the elites of this landship is not something I can claim to have. But that other feline seemed as carefree as one could get, if I might say so"

"Miss Blaze has a bit of a reputation precisely for that. I think" she replied, the mere memories of the woman being enough to soothe her worries, if only a bit.

"You're almost the same age, right? And I believe that cautus asked you to not be too formal with this child too, child. I seem to recall you saying she had asked you this herself during your first meeting as well"

"Well, Amiya did say that, right, and Rosmontis too. But... "

"Having come this far, I do suggest to make the last step"

"Somehow, that makes me even more dubious"

"Oh, so young and yet so sharp-tongued already"

Suzuran was about to apologize, but then she remembered what happened in the greenhouse. Despite what she had said the previous evening, she still didn't quite entirely blame the voice for that event. It was simply a voice after all. But she did consider it responsible to a degree, though she couldn't really tell how exactly.

"... alright. Here I go" she said, mostly to give herself the final push.

And so she finally knocked on the door.

She waited around one minute. Perhaps two. And, since nothing happened, she knocked again. With less strength than before though. And, after a brief silence, a few sounds came from the other side of the door, which then opened. Not fully, just enough for Rosmontis to look outside. And not even with both eyes, only one could be seen through the small gap between the door and its frame.

"Good evening, m- Rosmontis" Suzuran greeted with her usual, polite bow.

The feline, on her part, spent a few seconds blankly staring at her, and Suzuran found herself briefly returning her gaze. She didn't look as tired as last time, despite it being later in the day, but she didn't exactly seem all that energic either. Then again, Rosmontis hadn't looked exactly energic the first time she'd seen her either

"... Suzuran" she eventually said, a bit slowly perhaps, as if she wasn't entirely convinced. As a matter of fact, that sounded almost like a question.

"It's me, yes"

"Amiya said you would drop by, right. Good evening"

"Rosmontis, I, uh... wanted to apologize for last time"

"Why did you run away?"

She sounded... describing her tone as cold would've been an exaggeration. A bit distant though, that she did seem to be. Maybe Suzuran was simply reading her wrong though.

"I, you see, I... "

"Dear heavens down below, child, don't... "

"I had an urgent business I had completely forgotten about, so I, uh, had to take care of it"

"I seriously feared you would pointlessly ruin your whole life there, child"

"I see. That's fine. Forgetting something can happen to anyone"

Somehow, those words seemed to have a different meaning coming from her. But Suzuran was too caught up with trying to ignore both her sense of guilt and the voice still talking inside her head to notice.

"Your massage was nice. Thank you. Not as gentle as Perfumer's. But it was nice"

"Oh, I-I'm glad you liked it"

Then, silence. They simply stared at each other, neither saying a word. Suzuran's ears were lying down, much like her tails. She couldn't see Rosmontis' though.

"There is something I wanted to ask you, Suzuran"

"Oh, right. I'm all ears. Oh, and you can call me Lisa if you want"

"Which name do you prefer?"

"If possible... Lisa" she replied, hoping to not come off as overly confidential.

"Lisa"

The feline looked around briefly.

"Can we talk somewhere a bit more private?"

"Ehm... sure"

Around another minute went by in silence.

"This conversation is even more awkward than I had expected"

"... should we go to my room?" Suzuran eventually asked, rather lost on what to say.

"... no" Rosmontis replied after another, albeith shorter, silence "I will open"

Having said that, she closed the door. A few sounds followed, though Suzuran couldn't quite place what they were. Nor did she really try to, she wasn't there to pry after all.

"Come in" the feline invited her as she opened the door.

"Thanks for having me"

She walked in, the door closing behind her and softly grazing some of her tails in the process. She tried to not look around too much, but she still couldn't help but think that that room was... definitively not like she'd expected. The bed was somewhat on the small side. There weren't any windows, since they weren't on the outer edge of the landship, but a wide monitor bolted quite high on the wall displayed what seemed to be footage from one of Rhodes Island's external cameras. On another wall were a wardrobe and a small desk, a few books and a computer placed over it. A door led to what most likely was the bathroom. A vent a big larger than usual opened at ground level to allow the ventilation system to keep the air fresh. What really surprised Suzuran, however, was the canvas placed in a corner of the room, hosted on an easel and partially painted over, paint and brushes not too neatly placed on a stool right next to it. It was... hard to tell what the subject was. Suzuran's first guess was that there actually wasn't one at all. As for her second guess, she refrained from formulating it. She was already intruding too much. Probably.

And then there were the photos, yes.

The walls were covered in photos, as far up as Rosmontis could reach while standing on a chair. The furniture was too, to a certain degree. They weren't all the same size, but all had a date -year, month, day, some down to the hour, sometimes even the minute- and a few lines handwritten on them. Suzuran could recognize some of the faces and places captured within those frames. Others, however, she'd never seen.

At first she felt overwhelmed, almost oppressed even, by that sight. Then the feeling turned into something different, something more subtle and unpleasant. Was it... really alright? For her to see all that?

Rosmontis, on her part, looked around a bit, not entirely sure of what to do, until she decided to take the only chair in the room and offer it to Suzuran before sitting on the bed.

"I... hope I'm not intruding"

"We definitively are"

She felt out of place there, even though Rosmontis had invited her in herself, and the voice only reinforced the feeling. Coupled with her lingering guilt from what happened at the greenhouse and her having lied to the feline, Suzuran found herself wearing an uncharacteristically gloomy expression.

"Are you?"

"... pardon me?" Suzuran asked back, confused.

"This is the first time... " Rosmontis began to say, only to stop in the middle of her sentence to tap away on her tablet.

She spent a good two minutes going through various files before looking back up, her eyes meeting Suzuran's.

"I'm not... used to talking with people around my age, other than Amiya. I don't know what I should be saying or doing. Amiya told me to act natural, but... "

"T-there isn't really any procedure for this, don't worry" Suzuran tried to... comfort her, maybe? She wasn't sure.

"I see"

Had it not been for that last exchange, the vulpo would've thought Rosmontis had forgotten what she wanted to ask her, given the silence that had once again fallen on them. Considering her last few sentences, however, she figured she was simply trying to find the words. And so she simply waited, her hands resting on her knees, her tails fluttering softly in the air.

"Amiya once told me" the feline eventually spoke "That people don't like to be seen in embarassing situations. I think I understand what she meant"

Suzuran couldn't help but wonder under which circumstances Amiya had told her that.

"Yes, I think so too" she agreed, not really sure where Rosmontis wanted to go with that.

"I found this a few days ago" she continued as she took something out from under the bed, a small camera "Is this yours?" she asked as she offered it to her.

Odd. Blaze kept chairs under her bed, and Rosmontis had a camera underneath it. Did all elite operators hide stuff under their beds? The little vulpo brushed that thought away and focused on the present.

That question, too, seemed rather odd. Suzuran had never had a camera but, even is she had, she couldn't really see anything on it that might lead someone to think it was hers. Actually, there was a pair of headphones attached to it, but the design was made for the races with ears on the side of the head rather than on top of it. She took it anyway, though she had to get up to reach it as Rosmontis had placed the chair rather far from the bed.

"This is not mine" she said after having taken another, better look at it "What made you think it was?"

"There is a video of you recorded on it. Maybe I... shouldn't have looked at it?" she said, her reply turning into a question of its own.

And, much to Suzuran's confusion, a very faint shade of red had appeared on Rosmontis' cheeks. The feline hadn't even realized it herself though.

"... I wouldn't watch that if I were you, child"

Since she couldn't answer the voice without -apparently- talking to herself in front of the feline, Suzuran simply ignored it and put the headphones on. It was quite an awkward fit, she had to put one of the speakers behind her head to be able to properly place the other one over her ear, but there was a fair bit of padding all around to make it not as uncomfortable as she'd feared. Then she started to fumble around with the camera a bit. There was only a single video recored on it, so she selected it and made it start.

It took her a while to react. Perhaps a whole minute. The video itself wasn't damaged at all. The resolution was rather nice, and the audio quality wasn't half bad either. The sheer absurdity of what she was seeing, however, caused her mind to freeze, probably in an attempt to pretend she wasn't actually seeing nor hearing it.

Just as Rosmontis had said, Suzuran herself was recorded in that video. She was in the greenhouse, though in a part of it she hardly ever stepped into. There was hardly any light, but that was definitively her. And she was surrounded by metal crabs, busy eating away at the crab food stuck all over her body and clothes, with the latters being nibbled away as well. Her recorded laughter echoed in her ear as her fingers began to tremble, her cheeks growing redder by the second as she realized what she was watching.

"T... t-this... "

Her free ear twitched, her tails began to wave behind her. She looked up, tearing her gaze off the screen and putting it on Rosmontis, who was looking back at her with a bit of confusion showing on her face.

"... w... wha... h-how... "

The feline simply stared back. She could tell that Suzuran was feeling... uneasy, so to say, but she wasn't quite sure what she should've done in such a situation. Which, in turn, got her somewhat agitatet too. The little vulpo then took a long series of deep breaths. She realized she was holding the camera much too tightly and loosened her grasp a bit.

Deep breaths.

Deep breaths.

In.

Out.

"... h... how... did you obtain this, Rosmontis?" she managed to ask after what felt like ages.

"Someone had left it inside an air vent. I saw a missplaced grate and found it there"

"Did you... did... did you watch this?"

"... I did" she replied, a faint red returning to her cheeks.

"... Ifrit. Did Ifrit film this?!" Suzuran suddenly shouted as she jumped to her feet.

Startled, Rosmontis pulled herself back along the bed, her reaction causing the vulpo to calm down almost immediatly.

"Ah- I'm sorry!" she apologized as she bowed as deeply as she could "I didn't mean to scream"

"Who is Ifrit?" the feline asked, though she still didn't move back to her previous position.

"She is... a friend"

How exactly that video had ended up in Rosmontis' possession, Suzuran didn't really care all that much. Not at the moment, at least. The voice, on its part, knew at least why the sarkaz had left it around. Silence had found a few overly powerful... firecrackers of sort inside their dormitory. That prompted a through search of Ifrit's room since previous events had earned her a ban from owning such items. To prevent her from finding the camera and thus the recorded video, Ifrit hid it somewhere else on the landship just in the nick of time, if a bit poorly. She hadn't gotten the chance to sneak it back to her room ever since then though, so it was likely she didn't even know the camera was gone. As for why Rosmontis hadn't left it where she had found it, that was because she had a feeling the video recorded inside was better kept somewhere safer.

What really troubled Suzuran was the fact that said video even existed in the first place. She tried to think of someone else who might've filmed that event, but Ifrit was the only one who came to her mind. She could've gotten down and helped her, but she decided to film her instead? Would she really do something like that?

"Did you tell her to do that?" she asked, dejection and a very faint trace of anger in her voice.

Rosmontis blinked, confused by that question. It wasn't aimed at her, after all.

"What I suggested her to do back when was considerably more radical, child"

"That's... "

"Lisa" Rosmontis interrupted them.

The feline didn't say anything else at first, simply getting off the bed and taking a step forward. There was still a bit more than an arm's length between them though.

"I'm sorry. Did I hurt you?"

"Eh? Ah, no, no, not at all! You did nothing wrong, really! It's just... this video is quite... did you tell anyone about this?"

"No" she replied, shaking her head softly.

"Thanks a lot!" Suzuran almost cheered.

She had taken a step forward, instinctively trying to hug the feline, but Rosmontis took a step back around as reflexively, prompting Suzuran to freeze.

Amiya had told her about that, right. Rosmontis was... not too fond of physical contact. Or rather, there were only a few people she was comfortable being casually touched by. The massage room was a special place, in that regard, and even then she probably wouldn't have agreed to Suzuran massaging her had it not been for the fragrance and her own weary -or sleepy- state.

"I won't tell anyone" she reassured her, after which Suzuran thanked her again.

Then, however, silence fell over the room once more.

"If that's all, I believe we might as well be on our way"

As usual, Suzuran didn't answer, but that proposal did seem sort of reasonable. She spent a short while mulling over it and, just as she was about to excuse herself out of there, Rosmontis spoke.

"I will show you something" she said, though her voice was a bit low.

"Ehm, pardon?"

"That video was a secret, right? I should show you a secret too then"

"Ah, manners" the voice commented, apparently pleased.

"Ah, no, you truly don't have to... "

"But it wouldn't be fair, no?"

"She's right, child"

"You didn't find out about it on purpose... "

"You went out of your way to apologize, now let her apologize too"

"But I still did"

"Come on, child, accept it" the voice urged her, its words blending into her own thoughts, blurring the line between itself and her.

Pressed on both sides, Suzuran fell silent for the shorter half of a minute, her eyes fixed on Rosmontis who, on her part, was staring right back at her, an expression difficult to read on her face.

"I... sure. Yes" she eventually agreed, those words leaving her lips before even reaching her consciousness, leaving her startled when they made their way to her ears.

The feline turned around and walked to the air vent. The grate covering it apparently wasn't bolted on, at least judging by how easily it came off. Rosmontis then stepped back and, while her figure obstructed Suzuran's view, the little vulpo felt like something had just entered the room. Then a weak sound she couldn't quite associate with anything echoed between the four walls, something similar to glass creaking, to steel bending, a middle way between a growl and an hiss soon following, and with it a scent that bordered on being unpleasant without quite making the jump over that line.

Something was expanding in front of Rosmontis, who had taken another couple of steps back. A serpentine creature, its body smooth but irregular, somewhat like a jagged, shattered jewel. Its skin -assuming that weird surface was indeed skin- was dark green, perhaps even black, closer to crystal than to flesh in appearance. Small, glistening green eyes peered at Rosmontis. It had four long limbs, each ending with a sharp point rather than an hand, and no legs to speak of, its long body floating above the ground instead.

Weirdest of all, Suzuran didn't feel threatened at all by the creature. Rather, she was simply... startled. That thing was different from her, different from Rosmontis, different from everything she'd ever seen before, and not even in the same way Specter was. Yet, unlike the crimson-eyed woman, the creature in front of her right now felt more... approachable. Not dangerous, if anything.

The feline got on her tiptoes to better reach its head and caress it a bit, as if that was a friendly critter of some sort, her tail bent in a way that resembled a question mark. Suzuran wasn't too knowledgeable about felines' body language, but she was pretty sure that meant Rosmontis was, at the very least, not scared at all. Perhaps downright the opposite.

Then the creature turned towards Suzuran. While she didn't feel endangered, being looked at by it still caused her to freeze.

"Mon3tr. This is Lisa. Lisa, this is Mon3tr. Don't tell anyone that he comes here, please"

"... I won't, I promise"

"... alright child, we've seen enough. Scram. Now"

Truthfully, Mon3tr wasn't as large as usual at the moment. And the fact itself that it was there meant two things: that Kal'Tsit was nearby, at most half a minute of distance away from it -which might very well mean on a different level of the landship since Mon3tr could travel through the air vents- and that she was asleep. Those things, however, didn't pertain to the secret Rosmontis was letting Suzuran on about, and thus she simply didn't tell her about them.

"I-is he... your friend?" Suzuran asked, not really sure what to say or think, turning the chair around to better look at them to busy herself somehow, if only for a couple of seconds.

Rosmontis nodded in response. The creature -Mon3tr, as she'd called it- pushed its head down against the feline's, softly rubbing it against hers. She returned the gesture, a display of affection that didn't look entirely as endearing as one would normally expect of such an act. Then the serpentine being drifted away from the feline and towards Suzuran, slowly, its arms tucked behind its back as if to not scare her.

The little vulpo gulped, but she didn't back away. She did get on her feet, but she stared at the creature with a calm that surprised even herself.

"I don't like where this is going, child"

A rattling sound came from behind Mon3tr, of something breaking and fixing itself right after, and then it moved a limb forward. There was an hand now at the end of its arm, a somewhat deformed hand with five fingers, of which two were thumbs. Slowly, as if Suzuran was made of porcelain, it brought its hand down on her head and softly patted her. Irregular as it was, the surface of its body was surprisingly smooth. Cold for the most part, with occasional pulses of heat flowing through it. Almost without realizing it, the little vulpo pushed herself up against the palm caressing her. The touch felt foreign, but also calming somehow.

Then Rosmontis tugged at its other limbs, causing it to turn around and Suzuran to snap back to reality.

"I'm ready, if you want" she told.

The creature let out a sound. A weak, high-pitched growl, or perhaps a dull hiss as it brought a second hand down on the feline's head and petting her as well, much to her delight. A sight as lovely as it was bizarre. Then it followed Rosmontis a few steps away from the bed. Suzuran, still rather lost, sat back on the chair as the feline sat down on her knees, on top of a pillow she'd placed on the floor beforehand. Mon3tr hovered a bit closer to the ground, but then backed off and turned towards Suzuran, letting out another low almost-growl as it did so.

"She promised to keep it a secret" the feline reassured it.

Still, the creature didn't seem entirely convinced, simply staring at the vulpo with a... well, Suzuran really couldn't make out any sort of expression on its face.

"I won't tell anyone" she repeated, both because she had every intention of keeping her word and because she figured that's what Mon3tr wanted to hear.

And, as a matter of fact, it let out an half-hiss in response, its eyes turning back to Rosmontis as it leaned towards her once again. At that point the feline ran her hands against its long, serpentine body, searching for a slight depression along it. She eventually found the spot and gently pushed her fingers inside, slowly pulling something out, another part of its body, long and thick and...

"This can't be happening"

Suzuran found herself wordlessly agreeing with the voice, her face quickly turning red as a certain scene from the book she was reading in secret came back to her mind. She opened her mouth to speak, only to realize that she had no idea what to say.

Rosmontis, on her part, had started to run her hands up and down along Mon3tr's newly exposed member. Her motions seemed somewhat awkward, but it was hard to tell if that was because she was doing it for the first time or if the reason was the uneven surface of the thing she was dealing with. Or so Suzuran told herself, at least. Regardless of that, there was a faint trace of red on Rosmontis' cheeks.

Still, that part of Mon3tr was slightly more soft than the rest of its body, at least on the surface. The feline kept stroking it for a short while, her palms already accustomed to the coldness, to the warmth occasionally flowing underneath it, to the skin that felt somewhat like glass and somewhat like flesh, to the smell acid and pungent on the surface, but which hid a fraint trace of Kal'Tsit's scent deep within.

Then something began to pour from the tip of the creature's member. A viscous substance the same color as the rest of its body, glistening weakly under the light, cold in some areas, hot in others. Rosmontis moved her hands down, near its base, and leaned forward, her lips resting on the source of the fluid. It stuck to her mouth, even moreso than honey would, and the taste was strong and sour, unpleasant at first, but it left an aftertaste on her tongue that reminded her of Kal'Tsit.

As for how Rosmontis even knew how Kal'Tsit tasted like in the first place, that was an entirely separate matter.

"That child's messed up in the head" the voice silently spoke within Suzuran's mind as the feline began to lap up the fluid with her tongue.

The vulpo's silent agreement wasn't as strong though, maybe because the whole situation had left her too stunned to even agree or disagree with any sort of statement.

Rosmontis kept lapping up the fluid at its source, eventually causing Mon3tr to let out a weak, constant hiss, or perhaps a growl, two of its somewhat malformed hands coming to rest on the feline's head to caress her, scratching her right behind her ears, which started to twitch in response. A soft purring began to fill the room as Rosmontis opened her jaw and slowly pushed herself on the creature's member, its tip gradually disappearing within her little mouth.

She didn't really make sure to not bite down. Even if she were to try, her teeth would simply sink a little in the relatively soft surface and then stop against the much sturdier underside. She was more likely to hurt herself than Mon3tr with such an act. With that said, the thought of trying didn't even cross her mind either. She simply kept slowly pushing its member inside her mouth. Or at least she had intended to try. But then she slowly pulled back, all the -short- way out and cupped her hands right beneath her lips. Suzuran -with both hands on her face but fingers open to not actually cover her eyes- found her gaze dragged to the feline's tongue, poking out from her mouth, her saliva dripping down along it and into her palms. She collected a bit of it then carefully smeared it over the tip of Mon3tr's member before moving her hands down along it, then up, down and up again, stopping briefly only to collect another bit of saliva.

Suzuran kept watching with bated breath. A part of her was telling her that what was going on was wrong, perhaps even messed up, and in more than one way, that she definitively shouldn't have remained there and looked at that. Another part, however, was convinced that leaving would've hurt Rosmontis, who simply wanted to make things even by showing her a secret of her own.

Admittedly, one could argue that by that point Suzuran was already in on said secret and had no need to actually witness the whole thing, whatever said thing might be, but the little vulpo wasn't exactly in the right state of mind to think that rationally about the current situation.

And so on she watched.

Rosmontis had finished smearing both her saliva and the fluid pouring from Mon3tr along its length by then. And so she leaned forward once again, resting her lips over its tip and then opening her jaw as much as she could, slowly sliding down and taking it into her mouth. With how sticky it was, there was a good chance the fluid from Mon3tr itself wasn't actually helping her all that much with her endeavor, clinging to her lips and tongue as she pushed her mouth down, some of it trailing down her chin but not quite dripping down from it. Still, she managed to reach further down than before, the texture now more pleasant to the touch. She stopped briefly to take a few breaths with her nose, since her mouth was almost completely filled, and then moved back up, running her rough tongue over Mon3tr as she did so, simply to lap up some of the fluids. The gesture, however, seemed to please it, which in turn made Rosmontis happy as well.

Doing that reminded her of both Kal'Tsit, whose scent and taste were hidden deep within those of Mon3tr, and Amiya, who Rosmontis had once accidentally caught doing that very same thing. That one event did involve a bottle of misplaced alcohol, but that's a different story altogether.

The little feline pulled her head back up, almost all the way to the tip, and stopped there for a few moments to focus on the hard hands caressing her head, scratching behind her ears and occasionally on her chin too, sending a soft and pleasant warmth through her. Rosmontis'd been purring for quite a while by then, but she realized she was doing so only at that point. Her cheeks grew a bit red as she remembered that Suzuran was watching them. Purring in front of someone else was... more embarassing than she'd have expected.

As for what she was doing with Mon3tr, she didn't actually consider it embarassing, though one could argue that the reason for that only made the whole situation even more... questionable, so to say.

She then pushed her head back down, reaching a bit further than before, sliding slowly along its member and then moving back up, once again stopping briefly before restarting. That process repeated itself a few times, until Rosmontis took a deep breath and pushed even further down, the creature's member nearly reaching deep enough into her throat to block her windpipe, almost preventing her from breathing. She remained there for a second, two, three, knowing that Mon3tr liked it when she did that, and then the creature itself gently grabbed her head to pull her back up, air flowing into her lungs. She coughed a little, some of its seed -?- stuck to her throat. She didn't really mind though. Quite the opposite, actually. That fluid dissipated on its own after a while and, the closer it got to that point, the closer its taste and smell got to those of Kal'Tsit.

She swallowed, then took a small break to both adjust her breaths and relish on the gentle caresses on her head. And then she restarted. As she did so, a different feeling began to form in her lower half. A warm tingle, an oddly pleasant itch of sort. Still moving her mouth up and down along Mon3tr, the feline brought her hands down, one grabbing the lower hem of her dress and pulling it up slightly, the other sliding beneath her panties and gently caressing her privates.

Suzuran -who was actually more knowledgeable than Rosmontis on that particular subject, though that said more about the feline than it did about the vulpo- started to sweat, her tails waving around almost wildly, her ears lying low. Her breaths had grown heavy, but her hands had moved away from her face.

"Do you still intend to remain here? Seriously?" the voice asked.

Suzuran said something in response, but her words were such a fleeble whisper she didn't even hear them herself. Though that voice had no need to hear either, so long as she thought her answer.

"... you know what. You've come this far already, you might as well go all the way"

That last sentence didn't quite register inside Suzuran's brain, at least not entirely as a foreign idea.

"Go on, have a bit of fun yourself. I would personally find that more entertaining, at least"

Spurred on, the little vulpo moved her hands down along herself and beneath her long dress without even realizing, only noticing the fact when her fingers pressed against her underwear. She let out a weak -almost muffled- shriek in surprise but, even as she understood what she was doing, she didn't quite pull her hands away, though she didn't move them any further either.

"Oh well"

In the meanwhile, Rosmontis had continued moving her mouth up and down, occasionally licking too. She had picked up the pace a bit, slowly but steadily, causing Mon3tr's half-hisses to grown louder in much the same way, until the creature gently but firmly pulled her away. The feline, however, pushed herself forward again, her lips closing over the creature's tip. Right after, her eyes went wide, and a few moments later Suzuran saw a faintly luminescent, bright green fluid pouring out from her mouth, still closed around the creature. She could see her swallow a couple of times before pulling back, coughing a bit as she brought both hands beneath her chin to catch as much of the fluid she had failed to drink before it could spill to the floor. While its texture wasn't all that nice, almost bordering on unpleasant even, she could feel Kal'Tsit's presence much more clearly from it than from the more viscous fluid previously released. It was almost as if Kal'Tsit was there herself, or so it felt like for Rosmontis. She finished drinking what was left in her mouth then poured what she'd managed to catch on her hands between her lips, slowly gulping that down as well.

Some had fallen to the ground, but she left that there. Licking stuff off the floor wasn't hygienic after all.

Then the feline turned around to look at Suzuran, the little vulpo freezing in response, her face somehow turning even redder than before. All Rosmontis could see, however, was that she seemed to be doing the same thing as her.

"Do you... want to try?" she asked.

"... pardon?"

"You're touching yourself too"

She didn't say she was masturbating. Partially because, technically speaking, she had stopped just short of it. But mostly because Rosmontis herself didn't actually know that word. For the same reason, that question made her only slightly embarassed, and she wasn't even sure why.

Suzuran, however, very much knew that word.

"I- th-this... uh... I didn't mean to... "

"He's not scary" Rosmontis said to try and reassure Suzuran, having completely misunderstood the reason why she was so flustered "He's actually really gentle"

"You're not going to... "

"I... I don't want to interrupt you" the vulpo managed to say, just barely holding her panic back.

"Oh, thank the heavens"

The feline turned pensive for a while, and then decided to simply accept Suzuran's kindness. Though it wasn't actually kindness, not completely at least.

"Can we continue? Or do you have to go?" she asked as she turned back to Mon3tr.

The creature let out a soft almost-hiss in response. Then it grabbed her with one arm under her legs and another supporting her back, carrying her to the bed.

"... for... for real... ?"

"A... awawawa... "

Her eyes glued to the sight in front of her, Suzuran kept repeating to herself that she was only watching because Rosmontis wanted to share this secret with her and, having accepted, she had a duty to witness it in its entirety.

As for Rosmontis herself, Mon3tr had gently lied her down face-up on the bed, its malformed hands reaching for her dress and pulling it up slowly, carefully, to not ruin it. The feline, however, rolled around and bent her arms, bringing her hands close to her face as she lifted herself on her knees, raising her lower half up. Mon3tr then pulled her wet panties down and leaned down over her, its body arching as it brought its head right next to hers. One hand reached for her nape and softly pushed it down, two gently grabbed her hips as it aligned its member to her entrance, and the fourth hand cupped her chin and began to scratch it, a gesture Rosmontis responded to by resuming to purr.

The serpentine being then softly rubbed its member against her moist privates, a gentle jolt slowly moving up her spine every time it rubbed against her clit. Mon3tr continued for a short while, until Rosmontis seemed wet enough, and then rested its tip against her before pushing forward.

The penetration itself was slow, careful, so much so that one might reasonably wonder if the creature wasn't afraid of hurting her. Its member felt just as odd as one might expect if not more, smooth but irregular, its blunt edges scraping at her insides as it gradually inched forward. Rosmontis had nothing to compare it to though, neither through experience nor knowledge, and so she couldn't even tell just how peculiar that feeling actually was. The feline's purrs began to mix with a different kind of vocalization as Mon3tr kept moving, its soft almost-growls echoing in her softly twitching ears, her tail trying to wrap itself around its body without quite managing to.

That act alone took around a minute, perhaps even two, after which Suzuran let out a breath she hadn't even realized she had been holding in. She had a clear view of the whole event from her seat, for better or for worse, and her eyes refused to budge. Rosmontis' soft moans filled her mind, and she slowly began to move her fingers again, softly brushing against her panties.

"... well, this is... uh... you know what, just... just ignore me this time"

The little vulpo took that advice to heart -or so it seemed, at least- as she almost absentmindedly moved her fingers, a warm tingle compelling her to touch herself in rhythm with the feline's purrs and soft moans.

Mon3tr hadn't fully inserted itself into Rosmontis, to tell the truth, but it didn't really have any intention to do so either. Instead, it pulled its member back out, almost as slowly as it had pushed it in, the ridges along it scratching her inner walls. The stimulation was gentle but, since Rosmontis made no attempt at holding her voice down -something Suzuran admittedly misunderstood the reasons for- her soft moans still filled the room.

Which, thankfully, was well soundproofed.

The feline closed her hands on the sheets, the occasional gust of heat flowing underneath Mon3tr's skin sending a warm shiver through her, piling on top of the pleasure slowly building up. The creature gradually picked up the pace, giving her all the time she needed to get used to its girth, glistening drops running down along her thighs, their mating producing a sound one would hardly associate with such an act, somehow closer to that of water running down a glass instead. Eventually, Mon3tr found a good pace and settled on that, an occasional half-hiss leaving its mouth as it continued to embrace her. Once she got fully comfortable with the penetration, Rosmontis started to move her hips back and forth as well, though she didn't quite match the creature's motions. Sweat ran down her skin, her legs beginning to give in as pleasure built up, and she eventually moved an hand over the one caressing her chin, her thin fingers closing around its much larger, deformed ones.

"Mon3tr... can we... nyaaaa... turn around?"

Her cheeks were red already, but the one to blush at those words was actually Suzuran, who was making an half-conscious effort to remain as quiet as possible.

The creature responded with a slightly louder almost-hiss and pulled all the way back, briefly letting go of her, only to move right back in to help her turn around. With the little girl now lying on her back, Mon3tr gently grabbed her thighs and pushed them up as it adjusted itself over her once more, its member smoothly sliding back within her, softly lifting her hips up in the process. Then it moved those hands away and towards hers as she reached forward, their palms coming together as they held to each other.

Bringing another hand to her head to gently pat her, Mon3tr started moving again, with just a little more vigor than before. It hit a different spot from that position, the change in stimulation causing Rosmontis to grow louder in her vocalizations, but the reason she had asked to turn around was to look it in the eyes. And look she did. It was, to be honest, quite hard to tell where Mon3tr was looking exactly, since its eyes had no visible irises nor pupils, but the feline could tell -feel- that it was returning her gaze, filling her with a different, more intimate kind of warmth.

Her breaths growing even more ragged, the feline relished in her own pleasure just as much as she did in Mon3tr's, the pleased -happy- noises it let out making her happy as well. And, before long, the muscles in her limbs tensed up, a tremor shaking her hips as she felt her insides contract with more vigor, a warm wave gently spreading from deep within her all the way to the tip of her fingers and tail, her moans stopping, her purrs growing louder. The creature slowed down as the little feline basked in her orgasm, and stopped moving altogether when her hips stopped shaking. Then it slowly pulled out and leaned down, hugging Rosmontis as it continued to pet her, her purrs filling its ears, wherever they were.

As for Suzuran, she had watched the whole scene while softly caressing herself, but a combination of shame, awkwardness, self control and perhaps lack of actual practice prevented her from going all the way and get herself off. The sight of Rosmontis peacefully relaxing on the bed, however, was enough to calm down her throbbing.

How much time went by with the three of them merely staying still, the little vulpo couldn't tell. She simply remained there, waiting for either Rosmontis or Mon3tr to move, which admittedly gave her enough time to collect her thoughts. She was almost starting to relax even, at least until she realized that the feline had fallen asleep.

That was a pickle.

She kind of wanted to leave. There were a lot of reasons for that, but she rationalized it by telling herself that it was simply too late to still be awake. At the same time, however, she couldn't bring herself to walk away while Rosmontis was asleep. That'd have been just plain rude. Waking her up didn't seem all that courteous either though.

"... how about leaving a note and going back?"

"That... might be an idea... ?" she half-replied, half-asked.

Then Mon3tr slowly backed away from the feline and... stretched its back, or did something that strongly resembled such an act, right before turning towards Suzuran. It didn't quite look at her though, not at first at least. It seemed rather confused, or perhaps troubled. Bothered? Annoyed? It didn't really have facial features, so all the vulpo could do was take wild guesses. Then it scratched the back of its head, fixed its gaze on her and made some signs whose meaning Suzuran didn't know. Having noticed her confusion, it brought a couple of fingers over its mouth instead, a gesture somewhat rough but at least familiar.

"I won't tell anyone, I promise"

The creature gesticulated a bit more, but Suzuran couldn't make out anything from those signs either. Mon3tr, on its part, seemed to catch on to that too and decided to turn back around, softly shaking Rosmontis instead. The feline woke up quickly, rubbing her eyelids as she got on her knees with only a bit of slugginesh.

"Are you leaving?" she asked, though not to the vulpo.

Mon3tr lifted both its head and gaze, as if trying to catch a whisper coming from above, and then shook its head. And then, much to Suzuran's surprise, it hovered to the canvas in the corner of the room and started painting. As for what exactly it was painting, the young vulpo still had no clue.

Rosmontis, on her part, had gotten up and headed to the bathroom. She was planning on watching Mon3tr paint for a while before going to sleep herself, but that activity of theirs always left her sweaty and sticky, somewhat like exercise at the gym did, and that called for a shower. She stopped after four or so steps though, turning around to face Suzuran.

"Do you want to take the camera with you?"

Her tails fluttered nervously.

"If... if possible, I'd really appreciate it"

The feline nodded.

"I... I think I should get going now" Suzuran added.

Rosmontis looked up, to the screen displaying the landscape. And, as a matter of fact, it was night already.

"Um. I will keep your secret"

"I won't tell anyone about this either"

"Thanks"

"I don't think this is something I should be thanked for... "

"It isn't?"

"Isn't this... "

She was about to say that such things were "normal for friends", but stopped halfway through her sentence. Partially because, no matter how she looked at it, none of the things that happened in that room that evening had been normal. And partially because she wasn't sure she and Rosmontis were even friends in the first place. She was her senior. She was her superior. She had seemed somewhat distant the whole time. Individually, none of those factors would've bothered Suzuran, not that much, but together they made her hesitate.

That and, most importantly, she still felt guilty for what happened at the greenhouse. And having lied to Rosmontis about it only made her feel worse.

"... I should really go now"

Rosmontis stared at her for a few moments, perhaps wondering what she had meant to say, perhaps thinking about something else entirely.

"Good night" she simply stated.

"Good night"

With slightly shaking hands, Suzuran grabbed the camera and left the room, stepping into the dimly illuminated hallways of the landship. She stood there for a few moments, staring at the object in her palms, thoughts and feelings temporarily pushed aside by Mon3tr's appearance and by its intercourse with Rosmontis coming back to her mind.

She had planned to keep in touch with Ifrit daily until her return to Rhodes Island, but now... now she wasn't so sure.

Making sure to keep its thoughts to itself, the voice wondered what to do about that, and if it even should have done anything in the first place.


Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed.